f the month, the forces
of Von Mackensen's "phalanx" were also greatly reduced. Along the
entire Galician front, it is computed that quite 600,000 Austro-German
troops were put out of action.

While the fight for Przemysl was in full swing an important event
of the war occurred--Italy joined the enemies of Austria on May
3, 1915; the Dual Monarchy had now to defend her western frontier
as well. Dankl and Von Bojna were transferred to the Italian front
with a considerable portion of their Galician troops. A general
redistribution of units was effected among the Austrian and German
armies. The army of the Archduke Joseph Ferdinand was held along
the lower San as far as Sieniava. Von Mackensen was advancing east
of Jaroslav along the railway toward Rawa-Ruska. Boehm-Ermolli
was fighting on the road to Lemberg from Mosciska. An army under
Count Bothmer was operating near the Dniester marshes, beyond which,
farther south, a group of armies under Von Linsingen (mainly German)
had forced the passage of the Dniester at Zuravno, and was trying
to advance on Lemberg and catch Ivanoff's main forces on the flank.
This last movement, if successful, would be the most effective method
of crushing the retreating Russian armies: being thus outflanked,
some of their lines of retreat would be cut and a dissolution of a
large portion of the retiring forces could hardly have been avoided.
However, all attempts in this direction failed. The Russians gradually
rolled up their line on the Dniester from west to east, keeping
step with the retreat of the armies which were facing west. With
strong reenforcements from Kiev and Odessa Brussilov commanded
the Dniester front under the direction of General Ivanoff. If only
the ponderous advance of Von Mackensen could have been arrested,
Brussilov would have had little difficulty in sweeping Von Linsingen
back to the Carpathian barrier. A somewhat similar condition existed
in the north, where the Austrians were at the mercy of Ivanoff's
strong right wing.

The archduke's front was smashed at Rudnik early in June, 1915; his
forces were driven back a day's march and lost 4,000 men in prisoners,
besides many guns. The Second, Third and Fourth Tyrolese regiments
were almost annihilated. German troops were hurried to the rescue.
Boehm-Ermolli also got into serious difficulties at Mosciska, where
the Russians held him up for a week with a furious battle. Ivanoff
was scoring points against all his individu